Best way to Order Post in Home without a plugin

Question

We are trying to reorder one section of the home page.

our approach was with meta_keys and meta_values

WP_Query Sample:

    <ul id="featuredMain" class="feautrued-main">
      <!-- Main Featured -->
      <?php
      global $prefix;

   $args_main_feautred = array(
        'meta_key' => 'den_h_f_order',
        'meta_value' => '1',
        'posts_per_page' => 1,
        'post_type' => 'any',
        'post_status' => 'publish',
        'order' => 'ASC'
        );


      $args_2nd = array(
        'meta_key' => 'den_h_f_order',
        'meta_value' => '2',
        'posts_per_page' => 1,
        'post_type' => 'any',
        'post_status' => 'publish',
        'orderby' => 'date',
        'order' => 'ASC',
        );

      $args_3rd = array(
        'meta_key' => 'den_h_f_order',
        'meta_value' => '3',
        'posts_per_page' => 1,
        'post_type' => 'any',
        'post_status' => 'publish',
        'orderby' => 'date',
        'order' => 'ASC',
        );

      $args_4th = array(
        'meta_key' => 'den_h_f_order',
        'meta_value' => '4',
        'posts_per_page' => 1,
        'post_type' => 'any',
        'post_status' => 'publish',
        'orderby' => 'date',
        'order' => 'ASC',
        );


      $args_5th = array(
        'tag_slug__in' => array( 'destacado-video'),
        'posts_per_page' => 1,
        'post_status' => 'publish',
        'post_type' => 'media_videos'
        );

      $args_6th = array(
        'meta_key' => 'den_h_f_order',
        'meta_value' => '6',
        'posts_per_page' => 1,
        'post_type' => 'any',
        'post_status' => 'publish',
        'orderby' => 'date',
        'order' => 'ASC',
        );


      $args_7th = array(
        'meta_key' => 'den_h_f_order',
        'meta_value' => '7',
        'posts_per_page' => 1,
        'post_type' => 'any',
        'post_status' => 'publish',
        'orderby' => 'date',
        'order' => 'ASC',
        );


      $args_8th = array(
        'meta_key' => 'den_h_f_order',
        'meta_value' => '8',
        'posts_per_page' => 1,
        'post_type' => 'any',
        'post_status' => 'publish',
        'orderby' => 'date',
        'order' => 'ASC',
        );

      $first   = new WP_Query($args_main_feautred);
      $second  = new WP_Query($args_2nd);
      $third   = new WP_Query($args_3rd);
      $forth   = new WP_Query($args_4th);
      $fifth   = new WP_Query($args_5th);
      $sixth   = new WP_Query($args_6th);
      $seventh = new WP_Query($args_7th);
      $eight = new WP_Query($args_8th);
?>

Then I can select this order with:

It is perhaps the must complicated way to reorder posts with out using a TAG or a Super Fancy Plugin.

My question now is about the logic of a conditional that if NONE is selected or nothing is selected at all, then a default fallback (orderby => data) take the place.

UPDATE

Conditional

If you notice I have a Checkbox in my Metaboxes called: "Activation home" .

So I tried:

    $homeorder_activation = get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), "{$prefix}h_d_order_activated", true );

if($homeorder_activation):

       $args_main_feautred = array(
            'meta_key' => 'den_h_f_order',
            'meta_value' => '1',
            'posts_per_page' => 1,
            'post_type' => 'any',
            'post_status' => 'publish',
            'order' => 'ASC'
            );
else :

       $args_main_feautred = array(
            'posts_per_page' => 1,
            'post_type' => 'any',
            'post_status' => 'publish',
            );
endif;

That won't work at all.

It will be amazing if you can point to another or better way to order posts.

thanks