Junking adventures with Jess

Junk in our hometown

By: Gracie Richter

Jessica Dee Richter is a local member of our community with four kids, including me, who all are attending or alumni of Doniphan-Trumbull School. You’ve probably seen her around town, cheering us kids on at our various events, but you might also recognize her popular social media persona. After teaching for 15 years, my mom resigned to be a stay-at-home mom; she was busy taking care of us, but now that we’re older, mom set out to find a passion for something new: junk. 

“I love so many things about junking and repurposing. I love finding things that can tell a story. I like to imagine where the piece has been. I also love the people who share the love of junk. They have a special kind of heart,” Richter said. “It’s a passion I never knew I needed in my life. It’s brought me immense joy.”

About 5 years ago, Richter started to decorate our house and quickly realized that she loves doing home decor. She started an Instagram account, @athomewithjessidee, to share her story with others and gained 15.5 thousand followers in just over a year and a half. She posts things from our house and stuff she finds along her journey. 

“Instagram is a place for really great inspiration. I also love the people I’ve met through the app. I’ve developed true friendships online that have developed into in-person friendships,” said Richter. 

With magazines and companies coming across her page, she has had big name brands like Natural Life (a brand with all things from wall tapestries with inspirational quotes, coffee mugs with different types of florals) and and others have reached out to her to do collaborations and magazines like Flea Market Decor asked her to do a 14-page feature, which is out in stores on September 4th.

From redoing our bedrooms to painting every wall and fireplace, she has redecorated our house over 100 times in the past five years. You could walk into our house every week and you would notice that something has changed; she might put black, white or maybe even floral underneath our island, change out the chairs or update our fireplace mantle seasonally with different colors or new wallpaper. 

She started collecting and making things with her dad, David Shafer. They spent quality time together traveling all over Nebraska to gather more old goodies, and eventually, she decided to have a sale of her own. She had her first of many sales on her porch in April of 2019. Her sale was wildly successful, so when she realized that she didn’t have enough room on her porch for all her merchandise, she asked my father, Casey Richter, to put up a small white building next to our modernized farmhouse. He was immediately supportive of her passion, and after he got the building done in the summer of 2018, she moved all of her decor into her shop. 

Casey Richter said, “She has a very good eye for the current trends and her unique pieces that she makes from junk is pretty impressive.” 

Richter has had many sales over the past few years; she has Christmas sales, spring sales, summer sales, and fall sales. She’s now working on her own decor line that she hopes will end up in Walmarts and Targets all across the country.

Richter said, “I have loved designing all different types of patterns that I can put on things, such as pillows, aprons and so many different gadgets. I love learning about all the different things that you can do in the business world.” 

My mom is following her passion, and that is very inspiring to me. She always says she is hoping that I turn out to be like her, going on junk adventures and develop a passion for home decor. I don’t know yet if this is for me, but I do know that even if I don’t love junking, I do love watching my mom follow her dreams because she’s teaching me to follow mine.