(They put the hat rack in Emily’s foyer)
EMILY: Watch it, watch your head. Get it over here. Okay yes, yeah, I think that was about – no I think it was maybe a little more on the left. Oh God, I should have put tape down.
LORELAI: Mom, you don’t think that the coat rack could’ve moved a quarter of an inch in five years?
Emily told Lorelai that the hat/coat rack from Richard’s mother had never been used or even taken out of the crate before she regifted it to her, but now it seems that the rack had been in Richard and Emily’s house previously.
For that matter, Richard’s mother hasn’t been to Hartford for over twenty years and has never seen the rack in their house, so why does it need to be placed in a very specific position that she will remember?
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 