I don't know why everyone forgot to mention the amazing capability of set
s in python. You can simply cast your list into a set and then remove whatever you want to remove in a simple expression like so:
>>> item_list = ['item', 5, 'foo', 3.14, True]
>>> item_list = set(item_list) - {'item', 5}
>>> item_list
{True, 3.14, 'foo'}
>>> # you can cast it again in a list-from like so
>>> item_list = list(item_list)
>>> item_list
[True, 3.14, 'foo']