Madison, WI Garage & Yard Sales: Frequency, Duration & Permits (2026)

Madison writes its yard sale frequency rule into the Zoning Code, Chapter 28 of the Madison General Ordinances, in the Supplemental Regulations of Sec. 28.151. The Yard Sales entry holds two numbers and nothing else: a sale shall not exceed four (4) days in duration, and no more than one sale shall be held in any three-month period. The first number caps the length of a single event. The second caps how frequently the same kind of event can recur, and because the text says any three-month period rather than a calendar quarter, every stretch of three months is measured, not just January to March or April to June.

Sec. 28.211 supplies the definition that decides what counts. A yard sale is any lawn sale, garage sale, attic sale, rummage sale, moving sale or other similar sale involving the display and/or sale of new and/or used goods on a zoning lot where the principal use is residential. The words new and/or used matter: a household selling brand-new items is inside the definition just as much as one clearing out old furniture. The phrase other similar sale closes the gap for labels the list does not name. The definition of Zoning Lot in the same section looks to the tract being used or built upon as a unit, so the test follows the land use, not the name the seller puts on the flyer.

On the use side, Table 28C-1 in Sec. 28.032 lists Yard sales as P, permitted, in every residential district from SR-C1 through TR-P. The last column of that table, headed Supplemental Regulations Sec. 28.151, carries a Y, which Sec. 28.032(1)(d) explains means there are specific requirements in Sec. 28.151 associated with the use. Those requirements are the four-day and one-sale limits. Yard sales also appear with P entries in the mixed-use and commercial table (Table 28D-2, Sec. 28.061) and the downtown and urban table (Table 28E-2, Sec. 28.072). Because the use is permitted rather than conditional, no Plan Commission hearing is involved; the limits are the whole zoning-side condition.

The Yard Sales language carries two amendment notes, ORD-23-00022 of 3-10-23 and ORD-25-00042 of 6-27-25, both already in force in the current supplement. The Zoning Administrator enforces Chapter 28 under Sec. 28.202.