@sandgrown - personally, I think 'harsh' is the actions of somebody who attacked their daughter with a garden rake and missed removing her eye by 15mm (after spending 14 hours to get the 26 inches from the table to the back door because she had been threatened with eviction for endangering the people next door with a fire hazard) in response to a tired 'I'm pretty sure I don't need anything that's here'.
I think 'harsh' is the person slapping their 10 year old for slicing her leg open to a depth where she could see her calf muscles because she'd fallen through a fishtank that had been buried in the undergrowth of the back garden for 6 years and refusing to do more than stick a plaster over the cut because she knew Social Services would want to know why there was so much shit around.
I think 'harsh' is the person who wished her eldest, Autistic, son dead repeatedly because he dropped a 'special' (£1 from Sainsbury's) mug when trying to rinse his cup in the sink because the sink, drainer, countertop and floor were stacked three foot high with unused plates, mugs and random other stuff.
I think 'harsh' is the person who left a cat suffering under furniture after being run over for a week because she didn't want anybody to touch the mountain of clothes and gardening equipment that was in front of it, so lied about the poor fucking animal being 'out' and 'doesn't like you, so is hiding somewhere'.
I think harsh is the woman who, on finding that the next door neighbours had expressed their fears of fire for themselves and for the lady who lived in it to her landlord, threatened a seven year old girl to 'keep your Mummy away from me, or she'll get that fire sooner than she thinks' and then pulled the sweet, little, whitehaired old lady who just can't cope with the nasty non white neighbours who don't understand her because maybe they're from a culture where people don't have much to begin with and my grandson's a quarter black so I'm not being racialist trick when the terrified child told her teacher and the Police got involved.
What I am about to say, however, I know some people who are paralysed by Stuff will be horrified by;
Hoarding is an act of abuse. It imprisons the people who aren't doing the hoarding. It stops them from having friends visit. It isolates them from the embarrassment, from the fear of being mocked at school for living in a bin, for having fleas (genuinely), from being physically injured by the stuff, from being told at all times that the Stuff is more important than their need to be somewhere where they can walk through a door without having to turn sideways and breathe in. The existence of The Stuff is of more value to the hoarder than the living, breathing people around them.
For those who are heartbroken at the thought that they are seen as abusive - you can change. Just get rid of the Stuff.
For those who say nobody else sees it, so it isn't abusive - it is abusive - it's abusing yourself.
And for those who say 'how DARE YOU? I am a wonderful parent/it's the children's fault/it's MY house/ODFOD' - piss off, you vile, abusive little shits. I see you.