Plainfield, NJ Sign Regulations: Garage Sale Signs (2026)

Section 9:9-12(f) of the Plainfield Municipal Code sets three limits on advertising a garage sale. First, location: no signs for advertising or directing customers can be posted anywhere other than the premises where the sale is held. Directional signs on corners, poles or neighboring lots in the City of Plainfield fall outside that rule. Second, size: a sign cannot exceed six square feet. Third, timing: a sign cannot be placed on the premises earlier than one week before the sale, and it must be removed within twenty-four hours after the sale has terminated.

The sign rule sits inside a permit requirement. Nobody can conduct a garage sale in the City of Plainfield without first obtaining a permit from the City Clerk, and the permit fee is nonrefundable. The application goes to the City Clerk at least two weeks before the sale and must list the location, the dates and times, the owners of the premises and any other people who will run the sale. A sale cannot last more than three days, and those days must be consecutive. A person is limited to two garage sales in any calendar year, and so is any one premises. Sales run between 8:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M. only.

The definition of a garage sale is wide. It covers every general sale open to the public to dispose of personal property, including sales called garage, lawn, house, estate, bazaar, yard, attic, porch, room, backyard, patio, flea market or rummage sales, so all of them follow the same sign rule. Subsection (i) lists exceptions for sales under a court order or process, persons acting in accordance with their powers and duties as public officials, and bona fide charitable and religious organizations organized not for profit, which are exempt from payment of the fee. Subsection (h) assigns enforcement of the section to the City Code Enforcement Officer.