Boulder, CO Garage & Yard Sales: Frequency, Duration & Permits (2026)

Boulder's Land Use Code has no standalone garage-sale ordinance; the operative frequency limit lives inside the sign code's list of signs exempt from permit requirements. Section 9-9-21(c)(1)(C) allows 'one sign per property in an agricultural or residential district placed on private property owned or leased by the person holding a sale,' but only 'for a period not to exceed ten consecutive days and not more than twice in a calendar year.' The sign must fit within the total signage otherwise allowed for the parcel, though the provision does not restrict what the sign says.

Because the exemption is tied to the sign rather than the sale itself, a resident who wants to hold a garage sale more than twice in a year, or advertise one lasting longer than ten consecutive days, cannot rely on the exempt garage-sale sign; a sign posted outside those limits needs a standard sign permit from the city manager under subsection (b)(2), and must meet the size, setback and other standards that apply to a permitted sign in a residential district. In practice this makes twice a year, ten days at a stretch, the effective ceiling most Boulder households use for a posted, permit-free garage sale.

The same subparagraph groups the garage-sale exemption with similar short-term, resident-initiated signage such as the ten-day lost-animal sign, both administered without a formal application to the city manager's office.