Defect structures are spatially localized configurations that engender finite energy and may attain
topological or non-topological profile. Even in the simplest case, in one spatial dimension the defect
structures can be kinks and lumps, and may be used to study problems of current interest in a diversity of contexts in nonlinear science. We will revise the main features of kinks and lumps to show how they can be shrunk to a compact interval in the real line. We will also show how to extend the procedure to Q-balls and thick branes, in the last case in the five-dimensional braneworld scenario with a single extra dimension of infinite extent.