Before Laravel 5.2

Nowadays we can solve this problem also with global scopes, introduced in Laravel 4.2 (correct me if I’m wrong). We can define a scope class like this:

<?php namespace App;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Builder;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\ScopeInterface;

class OrderScope implements ScopeInterface {

    private $column;

    private $direction;

    public function __construct($column, $direction = 'asc')
    {
        $this->column = $column;
        $this->direction = $direction;
    }

    public function apply(Builder $builder, Model $model)
    {
        $builder->orderBy($this->column, $this->direction);

        // optional macro to undo the global scope
        $builder->macro('unordered', function (Builder $builder) {
            $this->remove($builder, $builder->getModel());
            return $builder;
        });
    }

    public function remove(Builder $builder, Model $model)
    {
        $query = $builder->getQuery();
        $query->orders = collect($query->orders)->reject(function ($order) {
            return $order['column'] == $this->column && $order['direction'] == $this->direction;
        })->values()->all();
        if (count($query->orders) == 0) {
            $query->orders = null;
        }
    }
}

Then, in your model, you can add the scope in the boot() method:

protected static function boot() {
    parent::boot();
    static::addGlobalScope(new OrderScope('date', 'desc'));
}

Now the model is ordered by default. Note that if you define the order also manually in the query: MyModel::orderBy('some_column'), then it will only add it as a secondary ordering (used when values of the first ordering are the same), and it will not override. To make it possible to use another ordering manually, I added an (optional) macro (see above), and then you can do: MyModel::unordered()->orderBy('some_column')->get().

Laravel 5.2 and up

Laravel 5.2 introduced a much cleaner way to work with global scopes. Now, the only thing we have to write is the following:

<?php namespace App;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Builder;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Scope;

class OrderScope implements Scope
{

    private $column;

    private $direction;

    public function __construct($column, $direction = 'asc')
    {
        $this->column = $column;
        $this->direction = $direction;
    }

    public function apply(Builder $builder, Model $model)
    {
        $builder->orderBy($this->column, $this->direction);
    }
}

Then, in your model, you can add the scope in the boot() method:

protected static function boot() {
    parent::boot();
    static::addGlobalScope(new OrderScope('date', 'desc'));
}

To remove the global scope, simply use:

MyModel::withoutGlobalScope(OrderScope::class)->get();

Solution without extra scope class

If you don’t like to have a whole class for the scope, you can (since Laravel 5.2) also define the global scope inline, in your model’s boot() method:

protected static function boot() {
    parent::boot();
    static::addGlobalScope('order', function (Builder $builder) {
        $builder->orderBy('date', 'desc');
    });
}

You can remove this global scope using this:

MyModel::withoutGlobalScope('order')->get();