diff --git a/build_library/extra_sysexts.sh b/build_library/extra_sysexts.sh
index 85ae7096fc..444b3eb9a6 100644
--- a/build_library/extra_sysexts.sh
+++ b/build_library/extra_sysexts.sh
@@ -11,19 +11,3 @@ EXTRA_SYSEXTS=(
   "python|dev-lang/python,dev-python/pip"
   "zfs|sys-fs/zfs"
 )
-
-_get_unversioned_sysext_packages_unsorted() {
-  for sysext in "${EXTRA_SYSEXTS[@]}"; do
-    IFS="|" read -r _ PACKAGE_ATOMS _ <<< "$sysext"
-
-    IFS=,
-    for atom in $PACKAGE_ATOMS; do
-       qatom "$atom" -F "%{CATEGORY}/%{PN}"
-    done
-    unset IFS
-  done
-}
-
-get_unversioned_sysext_packages() {
-  _get_unversioned_sysext_packages_unsorted | sort | uniq
-}
diff --git a/build_packages b/build_packages
index 6f69b75d30..21b3945bc9 100755
--- a/build_packages
+++ b/build_packages
@@ -291,6 +291,10 @@ fi
 export KBUILD_BUILD_USER="${BUILD_USER:-build}"
 export KBUILD_BUILD_HOST="${BUILD_HOST:-pony-truck.infra.kinvolk.io}"
 
+# Gather a list of packages we build with --buildpkgonly to prevent them from
+# getting cleaned by `eclean --deep packages` below.
+eclean_excludes=$(mktemp) || die_notrace "Couldn't create temporary exclusions file for eclean"
+
 # Build sysext packages from an array of sysext definitions.
 # Usage: build_sysext_packages "description" "${SYSEXT_ARRAY[@]}"
 # Array format: "name|packages|useflags|arches"
@@ -307,6 +311,7 @@ build_sysext_packages() {
 
     info "Building packages for $sysext_name sysext with USE=$useflags"
     IFS=,
+    qatom -F "%{CATEGORY}/%{PN}" ${package_atoms} >> "${eclean_excludes}"
     for package in $package_atoms; do
        # --buildpkgonly does not install dependencies, so we install them
        # separately before building the binary package
@@ -375,13 +380,8 @@ if [[ "${FLAGS_usepkgonly}" -eq "${FLAGS_FALSE}" ]]; then
   fi
 fi
 
-exclusions_file=$(mktemp)
-if [ ! -f "$exclusions_file" ]; then
-    die_notrace "Couldn't create temporary exclusions file $exclusions_file for eclean"
-fi
-get_unversioned_sysext_packages > "$exclusions_file"
-eclean-"$BOARD" -d --exclude-file="$exclusions_file" packages
-rm -f "$exclusions_file"
+eclean-"$BOARD" --deep --exclude-file="${eclean_excludes}" packages
+rm -f "${eclean_excludes}"
 # run eclean again, this time without the --deep option, to clean old versions
 # of sysext packages (those, for which .ebuild file no  longer exists)
 eclean-"$BOARD" packages