diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 46e2801..3755088 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 + default C++ standard set to `c++11`
 + added `INCLUDE` to `default.config`
 + moved `LINKER_ARGS` to the end of linkage command in `functions.sh` to properly link static libs
++ added function `try_delete_dir_or_file` for `clean` task
 
 # v5
 + added task `clean`
diff --git a/default_tasks/clean.sh b/default_tasks/clean.sh
index 0e5696e..4e40e05 100644
--- a/default_tasks/clean.sh
+++ b/default_tasks/clean.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/usr/bin/bash
 
-delete_dir "$OBJDIR"
-delete_dir "$OUTDIR"
+try_delete_dir_or_file "$OBJDIR"
+try_delete_dir_or_file "$OUTDIR"
 myprint "${WHITE}deleting build logs"
 rm -rf *.log
diff --git a/functions.sh b/functions.sh
index a2b3fbf..e589ff6 100755
--- a/functions.sh
+++ b/functions.sh
@@ -22,6 +22,14 @@ function delete_dir {
     rm -rf "$dir"
 }
 
+function try_delete_dir_or_file {
+    local path="$1"
+    if [ -f "$path" ] || [ -d "$path" ]; then
+        rm -rf "$path"
+        myprint "${WHITE}deleting $path"
+    fi
+}
+
 
 function compile {
     local cmp="$1"