We prove that the sign of the Gaussian curvature, which is closely related to the diagonalizability of the shape operator, of any timelike minimal surface in the 3-dimensional Lorentz-Minkowski space is determined by the degeneracy and the signs of the two null regular curves that generate the surface. We also investigate the behavior of the Gaussian curvature near singular points of a timelike minimal surface with some kinds of singular points, which is called a minface. In particular we determine the sign of the Gaussian curvature near any non-degenerate singular point of a minface.