Is the smell permeating into other rooms or is it confined to the bedroom? If it's in the carpet, my thought is get a carpet cleaner out to clean the carpets. Do you have an ionizer to help clean the air?

I don't understand why people think they need to marinate in stench. Regardless, with your asthma you really need to put your foot down with people who come over so they know you can't handle that stuff.

I know of various ways to remove smells, but I suspect it's not so much the smell itself but rather there's other irritants there causing the problems for you. Offhand I don't have any other suggestions right now. I'll keep thinking and let you know if I have any other ideas. Hope it's cleared up soon for you. Good luck.

If we have an apartment that has an offensive or strong odor in it we put a bowl of vinegar in the room and leave it for a few days. 9 times out of 10 the vinegar will absorb all the odor.
Certainly cheap enough to try as long as the smell of vinegar isn't going to cause you or your hubby to have another attack.
Suzan J

I totally understand what you are going through. Just a hint of perfume isn't pleasant but strong perfume gets me really into trouble. Open your windows and get a good cross breeze going for starters. Some of the carpet cleaners also get me in trouble with their odours. The wet rugs might cause the odour to linger even longer.

I can never understand why stores like Shopper's Drug Mart have to have their perfumes right at the entrance to their stores. I always have to make a mad dash without breathing to get to an area of the store that allows me to breathe without getting into trouble. I also have a saying that people with heavy perfumes on should not be allowed in elevators!

I would say clean any surfaces, especially fabric, where the fragrance oils might have landed--bedspread, pillows, drapes. Lampshades--air outside or in the garage. Close doors to bedroom and open a window for a day or more. You could vacuum with baking soda--don't know if it would hurt, but probably would not help. You could check for any fragrance-free carpet products.

Thanking each of you for helping. Here is what is going on at the time. Have all of the window open in the bedroom. For starters, have vinegar in the house, sat a bowl of vinegar on the floor. Going to leave the house in a bit. Taking my laptop with me, so any other ideas are most welcome.

Charcoal is a good idea. When you leave, close the door(s) to the bedroom. Keep it closed off from the rest of the house.

I would wash any surfaces I could with warm water and some kind of cleaner to cut the oil of the perfume--dresser and bedside table tops and sides, china lamp base, headboard and footboard, mirrors, door, and anything else you could wash easily. I like to use a hmemade spray of 1 part rubbing alcohol to 1 part water. Perhaps the wood furniture could be washed with warm water with a little liquid dish detergent in the bucket. Wipe the surfaces dry really well to get off any perfume, and to be sure not to damage any wood finishes, wipe with an old terrycloth towel.Then add the vinegar and charcoal suggestions too.

I'd get someone else to do the clean-up. Neither you or your DH should be further exposed.

Thanks to each of you that responded. So far nothing is working. Think the perfume is embedded in the carpet. Left all the windows open, friends came in and sprinkled baking soda. Also left a bowl of vinegar in the room. I cannot express the frustration that I am feeling. It looks as though she spilled the perfume on the floor. Have already check with Stanly steamer and they said if they can't get it out, the carpet may have to be taken up. We have been gone all day as I cannot breathe the smell. We will give it one more day and then let a professional decide what route to go.

I think your reaction is more than asthma. Apparently, you are allergic to the perfume.

Look up precedures for cleaning up skunk spray.

Keep in mind that baking soda, bowls of vinegar or vanilla do not work overnight and if the windows are open you're limiting the effectiveness of it. Essentially you're working on the whole outdoors rather than just the room. Vent the room for the major stuff and while people work in there, then close it up. It can still take weeks to absorb the odors. If they spilled it in there then you may well have to remove the carpet. If it's fairly new, possibly a square yard or so, (depending on how widespread the spill was) could be removed and replaced with new carpet so you wouldn't have to replace it all. I'm hoping it wasn't so much that it soaked down into the flooring beneath. If she spilled THAT much though and didn't say anything, I'd be having a very serious conversation with her. But back to the issue. Frankly, wouldn't it almost be better to pull the carpet with your sensitivities? If you don't have hardwood under it you could put a parquet, tile or vinyl down. Easier to keep clean, less dust and allergens and throw rugs could be used and tossed in the washer even in the event of a repeat spill.

It just stinks (pardon the pun) that you should have to endure this. Whoever did this should kick in on the cost IMO, but of course that's up to you.

I'm wondering about the carpet cleaning places though. Most use chemicals that could cause you trouble. There's one around here now advertising that they use activated water and if it works, that would be the route to go to avoid more irritants. Possibly someone could try a cleaning with vinegar water, let it sit a while and then use the charged water system. From what I understand, it works in a similar manner to an air ionizer. The water is electrically charged and dirt and the like has a positive charge so it's attracted to it. There's places selling the cleaner bottles that work this way now for "green" cleaning and I do know that ionizers work so I'm inclined to think this does have merit.

Again I wouldn't count out a good ionizer. I have great experiences with them. Again, possibly a friend could rent a cleaner, especially a scrubber and use a vinegar water to absorb as much as possible. Then have the ionizer going with windows and doors shut. I used ionizers back when I smoked and people didn't know I smoked other than having ash trays out. Had a small 12 volt one in my truck too and my dad, who was a nut about smoking, had no idea. Also a friend's company has some that get used by cars or places that have had small fires in them and he cleans them up, puts the ionizer in there for a couple days and it's amazing what it can do. I'm talking about a good one, not a cheapie.

Another thought or two. Check with a disaster cleanup place for ideas. They deal with fire and sewer smells all the time so they should know what it takes. Also you should find out exactly what perfume she spilled so you can contact the manufacturer, tell them the situation and maybe they could tell you how to neutralize it? Or if you know what's in it you could do some research on it. Lastly, I'm not sure if your or your guest's homeowners insurance would cover this so it could be a long shot but it might be worth checking it out, especially if you have to replace carpet and the like. Theirs might be more likely to cover it or possibly part of it.

I understand your situation. I can't go into a room where people are burning scented candles anymore. I cough nonstop and people can be very insensitive about it. BTW, plain, paraffin, unscented candles, well any fire, candle, lantern, portable burner etc, will help absorb odors too. Obviously they shouldn't be left unattended.

I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that you can get that smell out. I know how it lingers from someone being in an elevator a couple minutes, much less soaked into a carpet. Good luck and keep us posted.

Thank you so much for feeling my pain. Your suggestions were most helpful. We were not able to stay in our house. One of our friends came in called one of the places that does disaster clean up. Said there is no charge if they cannot get the smell out. Said after they clean, it may come back . Just not knowing how much the rug was saturated with the perfume. They worked in the house all day. They use no chemicals so it is safe for us to stay here tonight. If the smell comes back after all they have done, said they would suggest that we remove the carpet. Have not heard from the folks that did the damage. I plan on calling them in the next day. There are no smells in the house at this time, so we are going to see how it works for tonight. This is our new house and we have only lived here for six months. Sure didn't expect someone else to come in and cause problems in our new home. My next posting may be how to get rid of the "friends that caused the grief". I sincerely appreciate you all posting and understanding that the moment I am exposed to perfume or certain smells the coughing starts. Yes, folks can be very insensitive. Oh, one thing, we paid the company that came in and did the clean up, don't think I can take them up on their offer of no payment to them if it doesn't work. Told the manager we would talk about that if and when it happens. He said his business was built on his reputation and would never leave a job that was not one hundred percent satisfied.

Now I'm even more appalled! A brand new house, someone spills something and doesn't even say anything? I can't believe peoples' actions sometimes.

You may not have to ask how to get rid of them. If they won't talk to you now, they probably won't again! Hopefully they'll at least be so ashamed of themselves they suffer a long time. But it seems like few people feel shame anymore.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Hope to hear that they were successful.

Hi! I'm having the same problem. Can you please tell me what service came to your house to clean it up? Did it work?

Do you see a spot on the carpet where something may have spilled? If she had a spray bottle of perfume, I've seen how people apply that -- lots of sprays and very little actually gets on the person (the rest of us have to be the victims who "walk into it." But even the little "beads" of perfume have to land somewhere.

If the cleaner's tactic doesn't seem to be working after a while, I'd go look for Pergo flooring. It's a shame to have to shell out more money so soon after getting a new house, I realize, but it could help you in the long run.

Cynic: You're absolutely right about those elevator incidents! Perfume, cologne, aftershave, tobacco scents all make me queasy. I'm not allergic, but ick!

Pammyfay,,, this post is almost FIVE YEARS old. I am sure the OP's issue has been resolved.

How does THAT happen? An old post brought back to life???

It happens all the time ... and sometimes the topic is just too interesting to notice the date!
But who knows -- somebody here might have a different over-perfuming holiday guest and might have to go through the same thing! I hope not, but it's possible!

"How does THAT happen? An old post brought back to life??"

If you look, you will see that lizRDF asked a question, resurrecting the post.
But that new question was ignored - instead the 5 year old one was addressed.

lizRDF should probably start a new post with her question.

I set out small bowls of vinegar to get rid of smoke and cooking smells. You might try that. Leave them set out 3 or 4 days. Hopefully vinegar won't bother you.