Ogden, UT Garage & Yard Sales: Frequency, Duration & Permits (2026)

Ogden City Code § 15-2-19 defines a 'residential garage sale or yard sale' as the occasional sale of surplus household goods or furnishings, treated as a use accessory to a dwelling rather than a business. The definition draws its own frequency line: holding sales more often than three (3) days in any one calendar quarter converts the activity into a retail use, which is not permitted as an accessory use in a residential zone and is no longer considered occasional. The same section narrows what can be sold at a qualifying sale.

Two categories of goods take a sale outside the definition even if it stays within the three-day limit: items acquired for the purpose of resale, barter or exchange, and items manufactured or repaired for sale as part of a home occupation, itself defined at § 15-2-9. In practice that means a household clearing out its own used goods, furniture or surplus items over at most three days a quarter is exempt from needing separate commercial zoning approval, but a resident who buys items to flip, or who uses the sale to move inventory from a home-based business, is running a retail operation under Title 15 and must meet the commercial use standards of the zone it sits in.

Because the accessory-use status turns on both the day count and the source of the goods, a seller who exceeds either limit converts the whole event into an unpermitted retail use, not just the excess days.