Kitsap County, WA Garage & Yard Sales: Frequency, Duration & Permits (2026)

Kitsap County Code § 6.12.040, the exemptions section of Chapter 6.12 ("Junk Dealers - Pawnbrokers - Secondhand Dealers"), lists activities the chapter's dealer-registration and transaction-reporting scheme does not reach. Subsection (6) exempts "persons conducting not more than three garage and/or yard sales per year, with each such sale not lasting more than three consecutive days." The exemption sits alongside others for recyclable cans, paper, cardboard, plastics and glass; used books, tires, clothing, postage stamps, trading cards, comic books and furniture other than appliances; open-market purchases from an established local business accompanied by a bill of sale; and nonprofit or church fundraising sales under IRC Section 501(c).

Because the garage-sale carve-out is capped at three sales a year of no more than three days each, a household or seller who runs a fourth sale in a calendar year, or keeps a sale open a fourth day, falls back under the chapter's general rules: registering as a dealer with the Kitsap County sheriff's office under § 6.12.020, keeping an electronic transaction record under § 6.12.030, and reporting each sale within twenty-four hours. The limit applies only in unincorporated Kitsap County; garage sales inside Bremerton, Port Orchard, Poulsbo or Bainbridge Island are governed by those cities' own municipal codes, not this county exemption.