Fullerton, CA Property Maintenance: Garage Sale Rules (2026)

Unlike many cities, the County of Orange does not publish a specific garage-sale ordinance setting a fixed number of sales per year for unincorporated areas in its Codified Ordinances; this content is based only on the property-maintenance and business-license provisions that actually appear in the County Code. Section 3-13-4(1) makes it unlawful to operate any business activity in county territory without a business license as required by Title 5 and appropriate zoning approval, and Sec. 3-13-4(2) prohibits any business or activity inconsistent with applicable zoning approvals. In practice, this means a true occasional garage or yard sale of your own used household goods is treated as personal, not a 'business,' but a recurring or commercial sales operation (e.g., regularly reselling new retail merchandise) in a residential zone can require a business license and zoning approval. Section 3-13-4(3) makes it unlawful to place any temporary or permanent signs on the property without appropriate zoning and building-permit approval, so directional or advertising signs in the public right-of-way may be restricted. Note: rules differ sharply between the County's unincorporated areas and the 34 incorporated cities in Orange County, each of which sets its own garage-sale ordinance. If your address is inside a city, that city's code controls, not the County's.