Start with one honest boundary

Island houses are generous in character and stingy in square footage. Thick stone walls, low beams, a single main room that has to be kitchen, dining room, living room and — since the broadband arrived — office. You know the feeling: the laptop is still open at nine in the evening, the charger is trailing across the floor, and the kitchen table has not been properly clear since March. The fix is not a bigger house. It is a smaller, firmer boundary.

Decide where work is allowed to live. Not "roughly in the corner", but one specific spot: a shelf, a lidded crate, a flap of wall. In a small island home, the boundary is often less about a room and more about a container. Work lives in the blue box. The blue box comes out at nine and goes away at half five. That single rule does more for domestic peace than any amount of matching stationery.

Make your workspace fold away

The best home office in a small island house is the one you cannot see at teatime. Look for furniture that disappears. A drop-leaf table against the wall gives you a proper 80cm of desk when you need it and 20cm of shelf when you don't. A wall-mounted desk that hinges down is even better, especially in a cottage where floor space is precious. If you are handy, a reclaimed plank with two folding brackets is a weekend job.

Then think about the chair. A folding chair that hangs on a hook behind the door is fine for a few hours a day; if you work longer, invest in a proper chair but choose one that tucks under the stairs or behind a curtain. A tray with handles — a simple butler's tray or a shallow wooden box — is the unsung hero here. It holds your laptop, notebook, pens and charger. You carry it to the table in the morning and carry it back to the shelf at night. Everything has a home, so nothing colonises the kitchen.

Storage that suits island houses

Island air is damp and salty, so cardboard boxes are a false economy. They soften, sag and leave marks. Use clip-lid plastic boxes, a metal filing box, or a wooden sea chest if you can find one. Under-bed storage is your friend: shallow boxes on castors slide under a bed or a sofa and hold printer paper, archive files and spare cables.

• Use the back of a door. A pegboard or an over-door organiser inside a cupboard keeps staplers, labels and cables out of sight.
• Label everything. A chalk pen or masking tape and a marker. "Chargers", "Tax", "Ideas". You will thank yourself in January.
• Go vertical. A narrow shelf above the desk, a wall pocket for paperwork, a hook for headphones.
• Adopt one in, one out. For every new notebook or cable, one leaves the house. Island charity shops are grateful.

If you have a spare corner, a second-hand wardrobe with the doors removed makes a brilliant instant office: shelves inside, a stool, and the doors back on when guests come. But even a single shelf with a curtain across it will do the job.

End the day on purpose

Remote work on an island can blur because there is no commute to mark the change. So invent one. At the end of your working day, close the laptop properly — do not just shut the lid — and put it in its tray or box. Then go outside. Walk to the end of the garden, down to the shore, or just round the house twice. Ten minutes of fresh air, whatever the weather. If it is blowing a gale, stand in the porch and listen to it. The point is the transition.

Back inside, write tomorrow's top three tasks on a sticky note and put it in the work box. Wipe the table. Switch on a lamp that is not the overhead light. These small rituals tell your brain that work is over, even when the office is three feet from the kettle.

Keep the shared table shared

If the kitchen table is your only option, protect it. A tablecloth or a runner that goes down only for meals is a surprisingly effective signal. So is a charging station in a drawer rather than on the table. At mealtimes, everything work-related goes into a basket, and the basket goes on the stairs or in the hall. Children's homework, post and keys can share the same basket. The table becomes a table again.

You may need to negotiate. "No laptops after six" is a good starting point. If you share the house with someone who also works from home, agree on who gets the table when. A simple timetable on the fridge avoids a lot of sighing. And if you have a partner who is not working, remember that your "quick email" looks a lot like "not helping with dinner".

Tame the small stuff

Cables and paper are what break the boundary. A power strip mounted under the desk or inside a drawer keeps the floor clear. Label each charger with a small sticker or a wrap of coloured tape. For paper, keep one A4 folder for "action" and one for "archive", and a small shredder under the desk. Scan anything you might need and shred the rest. A single tin for loose chargers, SIM cards and adaptors stops the junk drawer becoming a junk room.

Finally, accept that small island houses are never perfectly tidy. The goal is not a show home. It is a kitchen table you can eat off, a laptop that sleeps in its own bed, and an evening that belongs to you rather than to your inbox. Get those three things right, and the island does the rest.