Midland, TX Garage & Yard Sales: Frequency, Duration & Permits (2026)

Section 6-1-22, adopted by Ordinance 7749 on July 14, 1998, defines a "garage sale" or "estate sale" as an offering for sale on a residential premises of household furnishings, clothing, appliances and related items. The ordinance sets three separate limits that all apply at once: no single sale may run longer than three consecutive days, a resident may hold only two sales in any rolling 90-day period, and the total for any 12-month period is capped at four sales. A person who exceeds any one of those limits is conducting an unpermitted garage sale under the Code.

Midland's sign regulations, Chapter 11-7a, cross-reference this section directly: temporary signs advertising a garage sale defined under Section 6-1-22 are allowed without a sign permit only if removed within one day after the sale ends and never placed on public property or a utility pole. Elsewhere in the Code, holding a "legally permissible garage or estate sale" is listed as an affirmative defense to the citywide debris-accumulation nuisance ordinance, so furniture and household goods staged in a yard for a properly limited sale do not by themselves trigger a nuisance citation.

Chapter 6-1 carries no penalty clause of its own for garage sale violations, so enforcement falls to the Code's general penalty provision, Section 1-3-1, which caps fines at $500 for ordinance violations outside the fire-safety, zoning and health-and-sanitation categories, with each day of a continuing violation charged as a separate offense.