Muktza (“set aside” in one's mind) is an item that normally has no permissible use (or no use) on Shabbat. Muktza items may not usually be moved by hand on Shabbat—even if your hand is gloved—except for certain Shabbat needs, such as you need the space or the item. However, it is ALWAYS OK to move muktza items with any other part of your body.
  Chazal instituted muktza rules to make Shabbat special by requiring that actions be done differently on Shabbat than on weekdays. The basis for the idea of muktza was when Moses/Moshe instructed the Children of Israel in the wilderness to prepare the mun for Shabbat in order to eat it on Shabbat. Chazal extended the idea to prohibit moving by hand on Shabbat anything that was not prepared in one's mind before sunset on Friday.
The several categories of muktza vary according to their purpose and their permissibility to be moved. Purpose Item whose normal purpose is forbidden to be done on Shabbat.
Permissibility To Be Moved You may move this item by hand, without using a shinu'i:

• If you need the space where it is resting, or
• For a permissible use.

• Using a hammer to open a coconut.
• Using pliers to crack open nuts.
• Using a portable radiator to prop open a window.

No prior preparation or thought before Shabbat is required.
Note You may not move it just to protect the item.

Muktza Machmat Gufo: No Use
Purpose An item that has no use. This item is not normally ever designated for use; for example, a rock or stone. However, an item in this “no use” category is rendered non-muktza and usable on Shabbat as long as you had intended--before Shabbat or the festival began--to use it for a permitted purpose. As long as you intended that, you do not even need to use a shinu'i. If you did not intend, before sunset on Friday, to use this normally unusable item, then you may only move it using a shinu'i.
Permissibility To Be Moved Unless you prepared before Shabbat to use it for some permitted purpose on Shabbat, you may not move it by hand even for a permitted use and not even in order to use the space where it is resting.
Note You might need to use the item regularly for the non-standard purpose because for just a one-time use, it might not be permitted. Consult a rabbi.
Exception Garbage has no use. You may move garbage within your house (example: push the garbage across the room with your foot), but if you want to dump your garbage outside and you have a private domain or an eruv, you may pick it up and carry it outside.

Muktza Machmat Chisaron Kis
Purpose A valuable item that you are concerned may be damaged.
Examples Passport, porcelain china, or other expensive and fragile or difficult-to-replace objects.
Such an item may not be moved except for its designated purpose and you may not move it once you have finished using it. But once you are already holding it, you may take it to a place where you want to leave it and you do not need to drop it where it is when you finish with it.  

Basis L'Davar Ha'Asur

Purpose Muktza item resting on a normally permitted item makes the lower item muktza too.
Example A candlestick will render the table on which it stands muktza (unless there are one or more other items that are more valuable than the muktza item, in which case the table does not become muktza).
Situation There are multiple objects; some are permitted and some are not—for example, in a drawer.
What To Do If the permissible objects are more valuable than the non-permitted objects, you may open the drawer.

Non-Muktza on Top of Muktza
If you want a non-muktza item that was left on top of a muktza item from before Shabbat started, you may use it without restriction.

 

Situation

You discover you have coins in non-patch pockets of your pants that you will wear on Shabbat.

What To Do

You may empty coins out of non-patch pockets if you need to use the pants, but not by taking the coins out: you must dump them out of the pockets.
Note If you have coins in a patch pocket, the whole garment is muktza, unless you forgot that the coins were there or if you intended to remove the coins before Shabbat began but forgot to remove them (in which case you may shake the coins out of the pocket and the garment is not muktza).

Non-Patch Pockets

Situations

Pants with muktza items in the pockets are on your bed and you want to sleep on Shabbat afternoon.

What To Do

You may move the pants off your bed using any body part including your hands; no shinu'i needed.

Item that Becomes Muktza
If you are holding a permissible item and it becomes muktza, you may put it in safe place; you do not need to immediately drop it or put it down where you are.
Example You are holding a pot from which you dispense all of the food. The empty pot is now muktza, but you may take it to the kitchen to put it down.

For More Information about Muktza

To see the TorahTots article on muktza, click here.

You may not feed animals that do not belong to you on Shabbat (even if they are tame).
Exception  It may be permissible to feed dogs on Shabbat even if they do not belong to you. Consult a rabbi.

Pots become muktza on Shabbat once the food in them is all gone. See Introduction: Shabbat: Muktza.
 

You may move a hotplate on Shabbat but ONLY if you need the space where it is located. You do not need to use an unusual method (shinu'i).
Note You may not unplug an operating hotplate. If the hotplate will not go on again, you may unplug it--but only in a non-standard manner.

All animals are muktza on Shabbat, even pets, since they do not have a practical use. Moving the animal or its fur or picking up an animal is a violation of muktza.

Do not bring mail inside the house on Jewish festivals, unless it was delivered:

• Open

• From within techum Shabbat, AND
• By a non-Jew. 

 

Do not bring mail inside the house on Shabbat, unless it was delivered:

• From within techum Shabbat, AND
• Within an eruv, AND
• By a non-Jew, AND
• Already open.

Reason Most mail is muktza since it cannot be opened or used without doing melacha.

You may walk between bushes or trees, even if they are close to each other, and you may use your body to make space for yourself to walk. But you may not push the trunks or branches away using your hand.
Reason The trees are muktza.

You may walk between bushes or trees on Jewish festivals, even if they are close to each other, and you may use your body to make space for yourself to walk. But you may not push the trunks or branches away using your hand.

Reason The trees are muktza.

If you keep your house key on a key ring with your car keys and you are within a private domain or an eruv, you may either:

• Remove the house key (even on Shabbat), or
• Carry the entire set of keys on the ring with you.

Reason The key ring and all of the attached keys are not muktza as long as they are on the key ring with the house key.
 

You may not wash or hang up wet laundry on Shabbat (or Jewish festivals).  The halachot for drying laundry depend on whether you use a clothesline or a dryer:

Shabbat: Laundry: Clothesline
You may take down laundry on Shabbat only if it was dry before sunset on Friday, and only if you don't:

• Transfer the laundry from one halachic domain to another (hotza'a), or
• Give the impression that the laundry had been washed on Shabbat (mar'it ayin).

If laundry on a clothesline is still wet at sunset on Friday, the laundry is muktza and you may not take it down or use it during Shabbat. This is different from the case of a dryer.
Reason On the clothesline, there is no certainty that the laundry will dry during Shabbat (it might rain, it might be cold or cloudy...), so the person cannot have in mind that it will dry during Shabbat.

Shabbat: Laundry: Dryer
Laundry in a dryer (even if it was wet at sunset) that was turned on before sunset on Friday (or Jewish festivals) is not muktza, even if you do not intend to wear it.  You may remove the dry laundry from the dryer on Shabbat as long as no light goes on.

You may not wash or hang up wet laundry on Jewish festivals (or Shabbat).  The halachot for drying laundry depend on whether you use a clothesline or a dryer:
Jewish Festivals: Laundry: Clothesline
You may only take down laundry on Jewish festivals if it was dry before sunset at the start of the festival, and only if you don't:

• Transfer the laundry from one halachic domain to another (hotza'a), or
• Give the impression that the laundry had been washed on the Jewish festival (mar'it ayin).

If laundry on a clothesline is still wet at sunset before the festival, the laundry is muktza and you may not take it down or use it during the festival. This is different from the case of a dryer.
Reason On the clothes line, there is no certainty that the laundry will dry during the festival (it might rain, it might be cold or cloudy...), so the person may not have in mind that it will dry during the festival.
Jewish Festivals: Laundry: Dryer
Laundry in a dryer (even if it was wet at sunset) that was turned on before sunset beginning the Jewish festival (or Shabbat) is not muktza, even if you do not intend to wear it.  You may remove the dry laundry from the dryer on the Jewish festival as long as no light goes on.

You may directly instruct or ask a non-Jew to do melacha d'rabanan for you on Shabbat, but only:

• To prevent a large financial loss.
  Note A large loss is subjective to the individual's actual wealth and also to that person's perception of what is a large loss. Consult a rabbi.
• For Shabbat needs.
  Example You may ask a non-Jew to unlock an electric hotel door or trigger an entrance door on Shabbat, since this is for a Shabbat need and the action is not prohibited d'oraita.
  Situation A new guest arrives and you need the space on the table occupied by your Shabbat candlesticks.
  What To Do You may not move the candlesticks, but you may ask a non-Jew to do so.
  Situation You left a non-muktza item that you now need for Shabbat on a tree branch (or a child left one in a tree house!).
  What To Do You may not climb the tree to retrieve the item, but you may ask a non-Jew to retrieve it. Example You may ask a non-Jew to turn on air conditioning.
  ExampleYou may ask a non-Jew (directly, no need to hint) to turn off a light if it interferes with someone's sleeping.

  • To allow doing a mitzva.
  • For other pressing (and certainly for life-threatening) needs, such as health, even if the person not sick.

  Note All of these are d'rabanan cases!

Here are some suggestions (they are NOT halachot!) of what to prepare in advance of Jewish festivals. Add or delete to suit your needs!
  
Candle Lighting

• Check candle lighting time
• Set the candles in their holders (and have matches nearby)

 
Set the Table
Set the table, including the challa and its cover
 
Kitchen Preparation

• Sharpen knives
• Tear paper towels
• Refrigerator: Turn off or unscrew lights; disconnect any LEDs or fans
• Turn on blech, stove, oven, etc., for whatever you will need
• Set up hot water urn
• Turn off stove, oven, if needed

 
Food Preparation

• Thaw frozen meat, fish, and other food that might take hours to defrost before being cooked
• Cook whatever can be cooked ahead of time
• Squeeze lemons; do any other boreir-type preparations
• Chill wine
• Open bottles and cans that will be needed on the Jewish festival

 
Cleaning

• Make beds
• Sweep or vacuum
• Dump garbage

 
Clothing

• Do laundry
• Empty pockets of muktza
• For men, set out Jewish festival talit

 
Muktza
Check that nothing you will need is beneath a muktza item
 
Personal Care

• Cut hair and nails, if needed
• For men, shave or trim beard and mustache, if needed
• Tear dental floss
• Tear toilet paper or put out tissues in bathrooms
• Open any new boxes of tissues

 
Electronics

• Set heat or air conditioning
• Turn on or off lights, or set timers for them
• If desired, turn off or disconnect:

• Alarms 
• Cellphones and phones
• Computers
• Microwave detectors
• Other electronics