def _as_list(list_str, delimiter=','):
    """Return a list of items from a delimited string (after stripping whitespace).

    :param list_str: string to turn into a list
    :type list_str: str

    :param delimiter: split the string on this
    :type delimiter: str

    :return: string converted to a list
    :rtype: list
    """
    return [str.strip(item).rstrip() for item in list_str.split(delimiter)]