you don't need to go to such extremes as "a smaller distro"...
I know I have mentioned it multiple times already.
Antix Linux.
Its been around for years...
its a solid, reputable distro with a large community..

"antiX should run on most computers, ranging from 192MB old PII systems with pre-configured 128MB swap to the latest powerful boxes.
antiX-core and antiX-net will run with 128MB RAM plus swap, but don’t expect miracles!
192MB RAM is the recommended minimum for antiX. 256MB RAM and above is preferred especially for antiX-full.
antiX-full needs a 5GB minimum hard disk size. antiX-base needs 3GB and antiX-core needs 1GB. antiX-net needs 0.7GB.

Instead of a heavy common Desktop Environment, antiX uses window managers to control what the end-user can see and do. We hope these FAQs will give you a basic orientation to antiX and its window managers, and provide the means to explore further on your own.
These window manager options come installed and ready to use in antiX-full and antiX-base:
the lightweight Rox-IceWM (default)
the lightweight IceWM
the lightweight SpaceFM-IceWM
the minimalist manager Rox-Fluxbox
the minimalist manager Fluxbox
the minimalist manager SpaceFM-Fluxbox
the very minimalist manager Rox-JWM
the very minimalist manager JWM.
the very minimalist manager SpaceFM-JWM.
You can switch by clicking on the menu -→ Desktop -→ Other Desktops,
All window managers can be run with or without the ROX or SpaceFM Desktop environment that provides drag-and-drop functionality or the Conky system monitor that displays real-time information.
antiX also comes with herbstluftwm, a manual tiling window manager.

antiX is a very flexible linux distribution. You can run it live from a cd, live from a usb stick (with persistence ie changes are saved on reboot) as well as setting up a frugal-install from an internal or external hard drive. Of course, you can install to internal and external drives, sticks, cards etc. You can even run it live, add/remove applications, customize it, remaster it and then install. All your changes will carry over to install!

antiX is based on Debian but is totally free of systemd! It comes with a custom kernel, its own custom scripts and repository to enhance user experience. antiX can be used as a rolling release distro ie you should be able to keep your applications up to date by regularly upgrading. If you wish you can enable the Debian testing or unstable repositories and live on the bleeding-edge! For those that prefer stability, keep to the Debian Stable/buster repositories.
A further feature of antiX is that you can install kernels from a variety of sources including Debian, siduction, aptosid and liquorix. This is especially useful if you have a new box as newer hardware is more likely to be detected and work with newer kernels.
antiX is also systemd free"

Personally...
I use it all the time...one of my fav's...
definitely a better option than lubuntu ..
bodhi is great..but can be persnickety..
I suggest ...yet again...antix...it will run on just about anything ..
its designed to...
without the compromising you would be doing in other distros..