diff --git a/contrib/git-clean.sh b/contrib/git-clean.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..67e94cb749
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/git-clean.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# Copyright (c) 2020 Cisco Systems, Inc.  All rights reserved.
+# $COPYRIGHT$
+#
+# Additional copyrights may follow
+#
+# $HEADER$
+# 
+# Trivial helper script to git clean a tree and all of its submodules.
+
+set -euo pipefail
+
+# Top git dir
+root=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
+cd $root
+
+# Clean the top-level dir
+echo "=== Cleaning top-level git directory"
+git clean -dfx .
+
+submodule_dirs=$(git submodule status | awk '{print $2}')
+if test -z "$submodule_dirs"; then
+    echo "No submodules to clean"
+    exit 0
+fi
+
+for dir in $submodule_dirs; do
+    echo "=== Cleaning submodule: $dir"
+    cd $dir
+    git clean -dfx .
+    cd $root
+done