diff --git a/blivet/devices/partition.py b/blivet/devices/partition.py
index 62e34ce46..ca009d0b1 100644
--- a/blivet/devices/partition.py
+++ b/blivet/devices/partition.py
@@ -42,6 +42,11 @@
 from .dm import DMDevice
 from .lib import devicePathToName, deviceNameToDiskByPath
 
+DEFAULT_PART_SIZE = Size("500MiB")
+
+# in case the default partition size doesn't fit
+FALLBACK_DEFAULT_PART_SIZE = Size("10MiB")
+
 class PartitionDevice(StorageDevice):
     """ A disk partition.
 
@@ -54,7 +59,7 @@ class PartitionDevice(StorageDevice):
     """
     _type = "partition"
     _resizable = True
-    defaultSize = Size("500MiB")
+    defaultSize = DEFAULT_PART_SIZE
 
     def __init__(self, name, fmt=None,
                  size=None, grow=False, maxsize=None, start=None, end=None,
diff --git a/blivet/partitioning.py b/blivet/partitioning.py
index 8e0776321..69bb2c6dc 100644
--- a/blivet/partitioning.py
+++ b/blivet/partitioning.py
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
 from .errors import DeviceError, NoDisksError, NotEnoughFreeSpaceError, PartitioningError
 from .flags import flags
 from .devices import PartitionDevice, LUKSDevice, devicePathToName
+from .devices.partition import FALLBACK_DEFAULT_PART_SIZE
 from .formats import getFormat
 from .devicelibs.lvm import get_pool_padding
 from .size import Size
@@ -249,20 +250,10 @@ def _schedulePartitions(storage, disks, implicit_devices, min_luks_entropy=0, re
             smallest_implicit = sorted(implicit_devices, key=lambda d: d.size)[0]
             if (request.size + smallest_implicit.size) > all_free[0]:
                 # not enough space to allocate the smallest implicit partition
-                # and the request, make the implicit partition smaller with
-                # fixed size in order to make space for the request
-                new_size = all_free[0] - request.size
-
-                # subtract the size from the biggest free region and reorder the
-                # list
-                all_free[0] -= request.size
-                all_free.sort(reverse=True)
-
-                if new_size > Size(0):
-                    smallest_implicit.size = new_size
-                else:
-                    implicit_devices.remove(smallest_implicit)
-                    storage.destroyDevice(smallest_implicit)
+                # and the request, make the implicit partitions smaller in
+                # attempt to make space for the request
+                for implicit_req in implicit_devices:
+                    implicit_req.size = FALLBACK_DEFAULT_PART_SIZE
 
     return implicit_devices