diff --git a/configure/RULES_TOP b/configure/RULES_TOP
index 8ec8f00e2..9a6538580 100644
--- a/configure/RULES_TOP
+++ b/configure/RULES_TOP
@@ -19,12 +19,12 @@ endif
 distclean: clean uninstall
 
 uninstall: $(addprefix uninstall$(DIVIDER),$(BUILD_ARCHS))
+	@$(MAKE) -f Makefile  cleandirs
 
 uninstallDirs:
 	@$(RMDIR)  rec.bak rec
 	@$(RMDIR) $(INSTALL_DBD) $(INSTALL_INCLUDE) $(INSTALL_DOC)\
 		$(INSTALL_HTML) $(INSTALL_JAVA) $(INSTALL_TEMPLATES)
-	@$(MAKE) -f Makefile  cleandirs
 
 tar:
 	@DIRNAME=$(notdir $(shell pwd)); \