I'd rather be thankful that we have too much, than too little. While I appreciate that your wife led you to your epiphany, traveling in the military led me to mine. I did not feel embarrassed or ashamed of what we have here in the United States--what you see here is the epitome of freedom.
As a Christian, I believe we should help and encourage those with less, but we should never let others shame us into giving up our freedom to bring about "equality" or "social justice."
People that prepare automatically and perhaps subconsciously, have a get rid of this, and get rid of that mentality
At least it's true with me
As I developed my lifestyle ... even before I met my wife ... I forsaw the needlessness of a lot of materiel things which .... deciding to throw away you develop a thought process that ALLOWS you to throw it away
THAT process doesn't just disappear with the article thrown away ... it becomes a part of your general mental make-up
Pretty soon you find yourself aware of things you never knew or saw before ..... go look at your neighbor's trash ... or even your own
My comment about Sanders is in no way an endorsement of him or his socialist mindset