Bowling Green, KY Property Maintenance: Garage Sale Rules (2026)

Garage and yard sales in Bowling Green are treated as occasional personal-property dispositions and are not licensed or fee-based at the city level. The City of Bowling Green Office of Occupational License (270-393-3000) does not require a business license for an occasional garage sale of personal household items, and the Code of Ordinances does not set a specific number of permitted sales per year or a maximum sale duration at the city level. The practical limits come from (1) the sign rules in Article 4 of the Warren County / Bowling Green Joint Zoning Ordinance — garage-sale signs must be on the same private property as the sale, count toward the residential cap of 10 temporary signs (8 square feet each on residential parcels under 2 acres; 16 square feet on parcels of 2 acres or more), and may not be placed in city rights-of-way, utility easements, on utility poles, traffic signs, or trees; (2) the sidewalk-obstruction rule (City Code 21-1.02), which requires sidewalks adjacent to the sale to remain clear and any temporary obstruction to be removed within 24 hours; (3) the home-business / home-occupation provisions of the Joint Zoning Ordinance, which require a home-occupation use if sales are recurring enough to constitute a retail business; and (4) the general nuisance and traffic provisions of City Code Chapter 27 if a sale generates parking, blocked sightlines, or trash that affects neighbors. Off-premise directional signs in the public right-of-way may be removed and disposed of by city staff without notice. Sales-tax collection on personal household items is generally not required, but Kentucky retail sales of taxable goods may trigger Department of Revenue obligations if a person regularly conducts sales (Kentucky uses the 6% statewide sales tax with no separate local sales tax).