How RIVIAM's Sadie AI Clutter Classifier supports Hoarding Awareness Week 2025

Hoarding disorder affects an estimated 2% to 5% of the population in the UK, often leading to unsafe living conditions, social isolation and delayed hospital discharges. As part of National Hoarding Awareness Week 2025 (12–16 May), RIVIAM is launching the Sadie Clutter Classifier - an AI-driven solution designed to support healthcare professionals, carers and families in assessing clutter levels objectively and efficiently.

Why the Sadie Clutter Classifier was created

RIVIAM’s mission is to help health, social care and third sector organisations work better together to free up time to care for people. After listening to customers, who explained that cluttered homes are often a reason for delayed hospital discharges, RIVIAM wanted to explore how to help address this challenge. This led to the development of the Sadie Clutter Classifier - a practical, innovative tool designed to make a real difference.

"RIVIAM’s Clutter Classifier is a really practical use of AI technologies to solve a real problem that’s impacting people's lives and costing Health & Social care. This technology is designed to help with the triage and speed up the process of clinical assessment”

Paul Targett, CEO and Founder of RIVIAM Digital Care

The Sadie Clutter Classifier is an AI-powered tool that evaluates photographs of living spaces to assign a clutter rating based on the widely recognised Clutter Image Rating (CIR) scale. The model has been trained using hundreds of accurately scored images, made possible through collaboration with leading experts and organisations in the field.

This development would not have been possible without the expertise of Professor Nick Neave, Director of the Hoarding Research Group and Chair of the UK Hoarding Partnership at Northumbria University. Their contributions, alongside the dedicated efforts of students and collaborators, provided essential data and academic guidance in clutter image scaling - forming the foundation of the classifier’s accuracy and reliability.

“The UK Hoarding Partnership were delighted to collaborate with RIVIAM on the new Sadie Clutter Classifier. Our members sent in pictures from hoarded properties to help train the AI, as we feel that an automated and objective means of assessing clutter will be very useful to our professional members and their clients. It will improve the current process of identifying and registering clutter and thus enable our members to provide an improved service to their clients with hoarding behaviours.”

 

Professor Nick Neave, Director of the Hoarding Research Group, Chair of the UK Hoarding Partnership

Removing subjectivity from assessments, the tool aids individuals in making consistent, evidence-based decisions that support effective discharge planning and tailored interventions.

“Really interesting to see how the Sadie Clutter Classifier helps people decide what is and what isn't a cluttered environment. It is something people often struggle with when deciding on what help might be needed.  As a contributor of images, we feel a small part of it.”

 

Heather Matuozzo, Director of Clouds End CIC

Are you interested in learning more about the Hoarding Awareness Week? Visit their website for more information.

Try the Sadie Clutter Classifier today

To support Hoarding Awareness Week 2025, RIVIAM invites everyone to try the Sadie Clutter Classifier for themselves.

Looking ahead

As awareness of hoarding disorder grows, integrating technological solutions like the Sadie Clutter Classifier into care pathways becomes increasingly important.

For more information on the Sadie Clutter Classifier, visit RIVIAM's official page or contact [email protected].