I think the cupboards in the alch area are random. I thought that the emptys were next to each other, but I tried jumping completely across the room when I found an empty and I Still found an empty, I'm not sure how it works, cause I get a lot of emptys in a row no matter what order I open the cupboards. Edit: after going back to the alch area, the items are in order, the darn thing must have changed when I jumped across.