My outlets are very old (original, house built in '65) and I've been replacing them slowly as time allows and now I've moved onto my light switches which are also all very sloppy, old and indefinitely original. Each switch has 2 hot blacks, 2 neutral whites and a ground and in each switch I've pulled apart so far, each existing switch has only the 2 hot blacks connected to the light switches and both neutrals and the ground just bundled and unused. My question(s). I have to assume an electrician wired things this way, but why? Should I change anything to make things more "standard" or just do it the same way things are already wired (which I've tested and it works)? At a minimum I was planning to connect the ground, but should I unbundle a neutral and wire it in a more normal configuration with a hot black to gold and a neutral white to silver?

I was changing a light fitting on a rented apartment. Fitting so old, the wires broke. After removing the old fitting, I noticed that the wires did not configure as usual. There were three wire nuts, as usual, and I imagined one for live, one neutral, and one earth. However, not the case. Live wire connected as usual - two wires in one nut. Second nut had four wires going into it. Three came from the ceiling (all white) and one wire just went between the ‘neutral’ nut and the third nut. This short wire came away when loosening the nuts. The third nut held the short wire to nut 2 and the neutral from the ceiling lamp. When loosening nut 2, the short wire fell away and the remaining three twisted together. I pinched the wires to separate the ends.I received a slight shock even though the fuse for the ceiling was turned off. Also, a lamp powered by an outlet near the floor went out the moment those wires separated. Fuse for outlets on. I stopped what I was doing at that point, as the set up was unusual and felt dangerous despite the fuse for ceiling being disconnected. can anyone advise? Building manager only interested in me knowing I have to pay for an electrician.