Knox County, TN Garage & Yard Sales: Frequency, Duration & Permits (2026)

The zoning ordinance's Article 2 definitions section sets the frequency cap rather than a stand-alone garage-sale chapter. A yard sale is defined as a sale of personal goods, including estate sales, held by a resident on any portion of a residential lot, and it may happen not more than three times a year. A separate definition covers rummage sale, which the code limits to twice a year and reserves for sales run by an organization whose members donate items to raise money for the group, sold from the organization's own location.

Both are listed, without a numeric limit of their own, as permitted uses in the county's residential and agricultural zoning districts: RAE Exclusive Residential at Sec. F, E Estates at Sec. M, and A Agricultural at Sec. M. Because they are permitted principal uses rather than uses-on-review, a homeowner does not need site plan approval or a use-on-review hearing before the planning commission to hold one, only compliance with the three-per-year cap. The code separately defines a flea market as an occasional or periodic sale in an open area where individual sellers move their goods off the property between sale dates, a broader commercial activity the county treats differently from a resident's own yard sale.

Exceeding the cap, or running a sale that functions as an ongoing retail operation from a residential lot, puts the property outside its permitted use and exposes the owner to the resolution's general zoning-violation enforcement.